Dr Ros Williams (she/they)

BA, MA, PhD

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Society

Deputy Director of Research and Innovation

Associate Director, ESRC Digital Good Network

(They/Them or She/Her)

Dr Ros Williams
Profile picture of Dr Ros Williams
r.g.williams@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6423
The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Ros Williams
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

Ros work spans across Science and Technology Studies (STS), critical media studies, sociologies of race and ethnicity, and of health and illness. 

Ros joined the university in 2016 as a Research Associate on the digital health self-monitoring project . From 2019-2023, Ros was a Wellcome Trust research fellow, exploring racialised bone marrow stem cell donor recruitment (). As of 2023, they act as Associate Director for the ESRC . 

Ros has been Associate Editor of the STS journal  since 2020, and sits on the Social Sciences and Humanities  for Wellcome Trusts Discovery Award scheme

Ros previously worked at the University of Warwick as a Teaching Fellow, teaching quantitative and qualitative research methods, material on science and society, and social theory. Their PhD was awarded by the Science and Technology Studies Unit () at the University of York in 2016. Ros was supervised by Professor Nik Brown and wrote a thesis exploring the archival practices of contemporary public-use stem cell tissue banking and the transitory nature of biomedical standards. 

Qualifications
  • BA (Hons) (Warwick)
  • MA (Warwick)
  • PhD (York)
Research interests

My research spans across Science and Technology Studies (STS), critical media studies, sociologies of race and ethnicity, and of health and illness. 

Previous research has explored intersections between health, race and social media, focusing on Black, minority ethnicity and mixed raced  (funded by the Wellcome Trust) and racialised biomedical recruitment activity (funded by the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness). 

My PhD was awarded by the Science and Technology Studies Unit () at the University of York. The thesis, defended in 2015, explored the archival practices of contemporary public-use stem cell tissue banking and the transitory nature of biomedical standards. Focused on umbilical cord blood stem cell banking in particular, I developed an interest in the use of race classifications, legacies of health care inequity, and genetic understandings of racial differences in blood and tissue.

I published a number of papers based on this research before coming to Sheffield to work on s Leverhulme project on , through which I developed an interest in the use of digital technologies for health practices and digital health platforms more broadly.

Publications

Edited books

  • Williams R & Hollin G (Ed.) (2022) Complicity: Methodologies of power, politics and the ethics of knowledge production. Oxford: Wiley.

Journal articles

  • Smart A, Williams R, Weiner K, Cheng L & Sobande F (2024) . Sociology of Health and Illness.
  • Hollin G & Williams R (2022) . Sociology of Health & Illness, 44(S1), 1-21.
  • Weiner K, Henwood F, Andrews J, Will C & Williams R (2022) . Science & Technology Studies, 36(2).
  • Williams R (2022) . Sociology of Health and Illness, 44(7), 1114-1131.
  • Williams R (2021) . BioSocieties, 16(4), 470-491.
  • Will C, Henwood F, Weiner K & Williams R (2020) . Social Science and Medicine, 266, ---.
  • Fitzgerald D, Hinterberger A, Narayan J & Williams R (2020) . The Sociological Review, 68(6), 1161-1178.
  • Williams R, Will C, Weiner K & Henwood F (2020) . Information, Communication and Society, 23(8), 1170-1186.
  • Weiner K, Will C, Henwood F & Williams R (2020) . Big Data and Society, 7(1), 1-15.
  • Williams RG, Weiner K, Henwood F & Will C (2020) . Critical Public Health, 30(1), 28-40.
  • Merz S & Williams RG (2018) . New Political Economy, 23(5), 560-573.
  • Williams RG (2018) . Science As Culture, 27(1), 24-43.
  • Williams RG (2017) . Technology Analysis & Strategic Management.
  • Brown N & Williams R (2015) . Life Sciences, Society and Policy, 11(1), 1-18.
  • Williams R (2015) . New Genetics and Society, 34(3), 319-337.

Book chapters

  • Weiner K, Will C, Henwood F & Williams R (2022) , Interrogating Datafication (pp. 141-166). transcript Verlag
  • Merz S & Williams R (2022) , Theories of Race and Racism (pp. 780-795). Routledge
  • Williams R (2022) Ive Got Peoples Spit All over Me!: Reflections on the Future of Life- Saving Stem Cell Donor Recruitment, Being Human During Covid 19 (pp. 100-107).
  • Williams R (2021) Science and technology In Murji K, Neal S & Solomos J (Ed.), An Introduction to Sociology London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
  • Merz S & Williams R (2021) We All Have a Responsibility to Each Other: Valuing Racialised Bodies in the Neoliberal Bioeconomy In Tilley L & Shilliam R (Ed.), Raced Markets Routledge

Book reviews

  • Williams R (2024) . Ethnic and Racial Studies, 47(3), 643-645.
  • Williams R (2020) . Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 6(4), 569-571.
  • Williams R (2017) . Theory Culture & Society, 34(7-8), 265-268.
  • Williams R (2016) . Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(13), 2485-2487.
  • Williams RG (2015) . Political Studies Review, 13(3), 396-396.
  • Williams RG (2015) . Sociology of Health & Illness, 37(5), 801-802.
  • Williams RG (2014) . Political Studies Review, 12(2), 255-255.
  • Williams RG (2014) . Sociology, 48(2), 417-418.
  • Engel T, Greenhough B, Keck F, Williams R, Evans M, Hegerty B & Kowal E () . Medicine Anthropology Theory, 12(2), 1-23.

Conference proceedings

  • Snooks K, Williams R & Richards D (2025) . Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp 3062-3081)

Working papers

  • Tinsman C, Gina N, Kennedy H, Goddard D, Williams R, Patel R, Richards D, Corpus Ong J, Millings A, Jones R , Hale S et al (2025) Evaluating the societal outcomes of digital technologies: building blocks and reflexive questions.
  • Digital Good Network , Hale S, Jones R, Kennedy H, Middlemass R, Millings A, Neff G, Ong JC, Patel R, Richards D , Snooks K et al (2024) . British Academy Discussion Papers: What are the possibilities of a good digital society?.
  • Weiner K, Henwood F, Will C & Williams R () . SSRN Electronic Journal.
Research group

Ros welcomes PhD supervision enquiries and is particularly interested to hear from individuals interested in exploring aspects of race and ethnicity, mixed raced identities, inequitable health access, tissue (blood, organ and cell) donation, and various aspects of digital health.

  • Ros is co-leader of the Science, Technology and Medicine in Society (STeMiS) research theme in the Department.
  • She is also an executive member of the interdisciplinary research institute . 
Grants
DurationProject titleSponsor
2022-27ESRC
2019-23Social Sciences and Humanities Research Fellowship - Mix and match: Constituting racialised communities in UK stem cell donation.The Wellcome Trust
2021-22Secondment Fellowship - Kept on Ice: Exploring international blood stem cell donor perspectives on the practice of unanticipated cryopreservation. Hosted by Anthony Nolan stem cell registry.The Wellcome Trust
2021-2022 White Rose Collaboration Fund : a framework for understanding social dynamics in and beyond a pandemic. White Rose University Consortium
2021-2024Contextualising and transforming support for minoritised blood cancer patients in the UK. PhD Collaborative award with Blood Cancer UK.ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership
2021-2024"Save Lives, Stay Home", or "Save a Life, Give Blood?": An exploration of NHS Blood and Transplant's public health messaging in the pandemic media ecology. PhD Collaborative award with NHS Blood and Transplant.AHRC White Rose College of Arts and Humanities
2022-2023Race to recruit: Understanding racialisation in biomedical science by exploring the enrolment of racialised minorities to UK clinical research and health interventions. (with Andy Smart, Kate Weiner and Francesca Sobande) Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness
Teaching activities

I have previously convened undergraduate modules for the department's Digital Media and Society course, including 'Advancing with Digital Methods', 'Sociology of the Media', and 'Work Placement'.

I am not currently teaching in the Department, but occasionally deliver guest lecture content and provide some MA dissertation supervision. If you're a student with specific questions about content I've delivered, please do send me an email.

Professional activities and memberships
  • Since 2022, Ros has been a member of the Social Sciences and Humanities  for Wellcome Trusts Discovery Award scheme.
  • Since 2020, Ros has been associate editor of STS journal .
  • From 2018-2021, Ros was co-convenor of the , which oversees abstract selection and delivery of the STS/digital streams at the BSA's annual conference.
  • From 2016-2019, Ros sat on the executive committee of AsSIST-UK which supports transdisciplinary collaboration across the social sciences, humanities and sciences in the field of science, technology and innovation studies.